Between Riverside and Crazy

SpeakEasy Stage show takes on police brutality, gentrification and family

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

Through Oct. 13, SpeakEasy Stage Company presents Stephen Adly Guirgis’ dark comedy, “Between Riverside and Crazy.” The story follows Walter “Pops” Washington, a black ex-cop who was shot by a white cop while off-duty. He lives in a rent-controlled apartment on New York City’s Riverside Drive with his son, his son’s girlfriend and his son’s friend, an ex-convict.

Speakeasy Stage’s production of “Between Riverside and Crazy.” Photo: Nile Scott Studio
Lewis D. Wheeler and Tyrees Allen

Guirgis wrote the play in 2015 and it has only become more timely in the last three years. Director Tiffany Nichole Greene says, “I think it’s very relevant in a time where politically there are no longer any rules.” In the play too, Pops begins to realize that none of the rules he thought he could rely on — his lease for the rent-controlled apartment, his 30 years with the police force, for instance — are working the way he expected. Police brutality remains a nationwide problem, and though the play is set in New York, its portrayal of gentrification issues resembles those in Boston. 

Some of the show’s most poignant moments come during Pops’ discussions with his white former partner and her husband. There’s a clear disconnect between the couple’s experience and Pops’, and they are unable to understand the racial dynamics at play. The scenes reflect conversations broadcast daily on the news. Greene says, “I very much identify with this painful pursuit of justice. I really do feel the pain of being discarded so quickly when you bring up race.”

Speakeasy Stage’s production of “Between Riverside and Crazy.” Photo: Nile Scott Studio
Lewis D. Wheeler and Tyrees Allen

In the midst of the themes of police brutality, loyalty and gentrification, the eclectic inhabitants of the apartment are all searching for family in one another. Tyrees Allen, who plays Pops, says, “It deals with age-old themes, how one makes it through the world, how one relates to each other.” Pops’ wife passed a few years ago. His son Junior has never been very connected to his father. Junior’s girlfriend Lulu seems to have no family and no obligations, and his friend Oswaldo has been turned out of his own father’s house and is seeking a replacement in Pops. All of them are trying to find love and forgiveness in themselves and in each other.

“Between Riverside and Crazy” is a powerful show about family, survival and race. It’s supremely well-performed and well-timed. Greene says, “I hope the audience walks away with an understanding of how complicated these issues are and how dangerous it is to conclude where we’re comfortable.”